


fall into the dead of night

by luciimariiellii



Series: high flying birds [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Family Bonding, M/M, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sibling Bonding, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 20:08:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17925491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luciimariiellii/pseuds/luciimariiellii
Summary: They all have issues when it comes to adjusting to being thirteen again.And after all the shit they dealt with, who can blame them?





	fall into the dead of night

**Author's Note:**

> hhhhheeyyyy bitches
> 
> me: oh the sequel will take a while haha  
> me, the next day: 3,499 words
> 
> ok so i didn’t rlly put much luther and allison in here just because i am not super into their characters (like most ppl I don’t love luther, and allison i’m just not that interested in) so trying to write in their POV would not have gone well
> 
> shoutout to the tua discord cuz without y’all i wouldn’t have even finished part one
> 
> have fun

****

     For Diego, it’s when he meets Eudora again.

At first, he doesn’t recognize her. They’re both in their thirteen year old bodies, and the youngest Diego’s ever seen her is eighteen. But that’s her face, with her nose and her lips and her eyes. Her beautiful eyes.

He stands at the end of the convenience store aisle, frozen and barely breathing. The other end of the aisle is blocked. He needs to go through this aisle to get Vanya’s cough medicine. He can’t turn back; He has to walk by Eudora.

Klaus’s voice fills the store as he chats with the clerk. For a moment, Diego considers asking his brother to come get the medicine instead.

He takes a deep breath and pushes his body forward. _Don’t_ _look_ _at_ _her_ , he thinks, _pretend_ _she’s_ _not_ _there_.

His plan doesn’t work. As he passes she drops a chocolate bar and he watches with baited breath as it skids across the floor. Of course, it stops right at his feet.

Diego closes his eyes and spends a moment cursing whatever deity might be out there. Then he bends and picks up the chocolate bar.

“Oh, thank you!” Eudora says as she takes it from his outstretched hand. Their fingers brush, and Diego almost starts crying. God, it’s only been a couple weeks, but he misses her so much.

“No... problem,” Diego chokes. Eudora gives him a weird look, waves, and heads to the register. Klaus steps out of her way as she approaches and gives her a friendly smile - then he furrows his eyebrows and gives Diego, who is staring stupidly after her, a questioning look. Diego nods slowly, and Klaus is at his side in seconds.

“Are you alright?” He says lowly as the bell over the door chimes, signaling that Eudora has left.

Diego swallows, shakes his head no, and says, “Let’s get Vanya’s medicine.”

The walk home is silent, until Diego chokes on air and drags Klaus into an alleyway. Diego shoves his back against the rough wall, covers his face with his hands, and sobs.

“Shit, Diego,” Klaus murmurs, like he doesn’t quite know what to do.

Diego’s eyes are wide open behind his hands, because every time he closes them he sees Eudora. Eudora, bleeding out in his arms. Eudora’s blood, staining his arms and clothes. Eudora’s eyes, looking at him but not seeing him.

“Diego,” Klaus says again. “Diego, you’re alright, it’s alright.” His brother wraps his arms around him and squeezes. It helps ground Diego a little, but not by much. He still sees Eudora. _Eudora_ , _Eudora_ , _Eudora_. 

Diego gasps, “I could have _saved_ her, if I was just _faster_ -“

“None of that,” Klaus says into his hair, “It wasn’t your fault at all.” Klaus’s hands glow blue, and Diego feels another pair of arms around him. It doesn’t last long, because in a second Klaus is taking in a strangled breath and the feeling is gone. _It’s_ _not_ _Ben_ , he thinks, _Dave_ , then?

“She’s dead,” Diego sobs.

“We can save her this time. We can keep her safe. She’ll be okay, we can fix it.”

Diego knows this, he has known it since they arrived. It was the first thing he thought when they were thrown back into these tiny bodies, the first thing he thought when he was back at the dinner table and Dad was right there and his other siblings were fighting with Luther.

 _I_ _can_ _save_ _Eudora_ , he’d thought as Klaus growled like an animal at Luther. _I_ _can_ _save_ _Eudora_ , he’d thought as Dad yelled at them and demanded they go to their rooms. _I_ _can_ _save_ _Eudora_ , he’d thought as Luther and Five explained to Dad what was going on, where (when) they had come from, what they came to do. _I_ _can_ _save_ _Eudora_ , he thinks every minute of every day. But it doesn’t feel real.

Maybe it will when he does it.

 

 

 

For Klaus, it’s the first time he has to return to that god damn mausoleum.

If he’d known he would be going there, he would have screamed and kicked and scratched until he was allowed to return to his room and his siblings. Instead of telling him, his Dad was a sneaky little shit, and brought him there while he was asleep.

Klaus had fallen asleep with Vanya curled up on his side and Ben’s arm flung across his face. He wakes up in a cold, dirty mausoleum, with tortured souls screaming at him. His father stands in the entrance, framed by light like some kind of wannabe angel.

“Let me out!” Klaus screams, “I swear to god, let me _out_!”

Dad turns and the door slams behind him.

Dave is there, sitting in the corner. He glares at all the other ghosts around, and when they get to close to Klaus he growls and yells at them.

Dave being around is a new addition. Seeing as how the body Klaus is currently in has never even touched drugs once, he was able to summon Dave pretty quickly. They don’t really - _do_ anything, when Klaus is able to make him solid, because it’s kind of weird for them to _do_ anything when Klaus is in a thirteen year old body, no matter how old Klaus is mentally.

The other spirits know Dave can’t do anything to them, though, so the vast majority still get too close. They get right up to Klaus, they scream and hiss in his ears, and Klaus screams back. He throws his arms out and swings wildly at them even though he knows they won’t hit.

“It’s gonna be okay, love,” Dave says. He settles down in front of Klaus and holds his hand over his shoulder, not quite touching. Klaus isn’t in the right state of mind to make him corporeal.

“GO AWAY!” Klaus screeches, “FUCK OFF, ALL OF YOU!”

His eyes are filling with what feels like gallons of tears, and he squeezes them shut so the spirits don’t see. He doesn’t want them to think they’re winning. _I_ _control_ _you_ , he thinks, _It’s_ _me_ _who_ _decides_ _if_ _you_ _are_ _here_ _or_ _not_ , _it’s_ _me_ _who_ _decides_ _if_ _you_ _can_ _feel_ _or_ _not_ , _it’s_   _me who decides._ His thoughts don’t help.

Tears are still filling his eyes and his brain still feels like a box of cotton and he and the ghosts are still _screaming, screaming, screaming._

The next twelve hours are hell on earth. There’s a reason he’d gotten addicted to drugs, there’s a reason he sleeps with all of his lights on, there’s a reason he didn’t give two fucks when Dad died. It’s the time he spent in this mausoleum, it’s the time he spent surrounded by angry, screeching souls.

He returns to the Academy late that evening. Dad doesn’t say anything to him except for telling him to go to his room. Vanya and Ben are waiting for him there.

“He brought you back to that fucking mausoleum, didn’t he?” Vanya asks. She is soft spoken, as she always is, but she is _angry_.Ben is seething next to her, his knuckles white and his shoulders tense.

Klaus doesn’t answer but they still get their answer. It wasn’t much of a question in the first place, really. They probably knew from the second they woke up and Klaus wasn’t there.

“I’m gonna kill him,” Vanya says.

“Vanya,” Klaus says, “It’s not safe for you to get angry.”

“I don’t give a fuck!” Vanya yells, and this is the most Klaus has heard her cuss in a while. Ben looks at her like he knows this is a bad idea (a look he gives Klaus a lot), but he doesn’t try to stop her.

“FIVE!” Klaus shouts. Vanya gives him a sharp look.

There’s a _woosh_ and Five is there, just a few steps away from Klaus. “What do you want.”

Klaus waves his hand in Vanya’s direction. His heart is still beating too fast and he still feels like he is breathing through a straw, but this is a nice distraction.

“Vanya,” Five says, “You need to keep your emotions under control.”

The faux-chandelier above them is shaking. Klaus is pretty sure he hears Diego coming down the hall.

“He put Klaus in the mausoleum,” Vanya growls.

“He did _what_ now?” Five asks, then he looks at Klaus (who has a lot of Fear TM right now, affection and genuine concern is very rarely directed at him) as though he is checking to make sure he is uninjured.

“Right?!” Ben shouts.

“Vanya, don’t worry,” Five says, giving her a thumbs up and a grin that would be frightening if he wasn’t their brother, “I’ll handle this.” There is a flash, and he is gone.

All the occupants in the room share a look. Dave makes a noise in the back of his throat, a small strangled noise, and Klaus thinks a week may not be enough time to get used to the Hargreeves family.

Five returns a few moments later, holding a post card depicting the Pyramids of Giza. “I left all his notes in the middle of the desert.”

Downstairs, their father screams.

 

 

 

For Five, it’s a culmination of forty years worth of pent up emotions.

He’d had bad days, back when it was just him, Delores, and the dust. There were plenty of days he spent curled up on the side of a road no one would ever travel on again, screaming, crying, begging to be able to return to his siblings.

     When he was with the Commission,  he didn’t have the time for emotions.  Emotions would make him do something stupid, and doing something stupid would get him _terminated_.

     Then of course, there wasn’t exactly time to take a breather when the apocalypse was in eight days.

But now? He is stuck in his thirteen year old body, he has to deal with Dad again, he has to relearn how to exist in society, he has time to take that fucking breather.

It’s a lot.

And suddenly he is collapsing in the hallway.

Ashes are falling from the ceiling; The walls around Five are crumbling. There is Klaus, laying dead a few feet ahead, one arm stretched toward him. Ben’s ghost - the ghost Five knows he shouldn’t be able to see - kneels next to him. Farther down the hall, Luther’s limp hand holds a bloody eyeball. Diego slumps against the wall with a knife through his throat, Allison is a crumpled heap next to him. And then there is Vanya, in her white tuxedo, standing above them all.

Five sobs. Vanya begins to approach him, and he braces himself. _This_ _is_ _the_ _end_ , he thinks. His sister kneels in front of him and reaches out a hand, making a pitiful, pathetic whimper leave his throat.

“Five?” Vanya asks softly, “Five, what’s wrong?”

He blinks. That’s not right.

“Five, you need to talk to me,” she says, her unnaturally white eyes - are they white, or are they brown? - filled with concern.

“Vanya,” he whispers, but he can’t make himself say anything more than that. He misses Delores. She always knew what he wanted to say.

“Hey, Five,” Vanya starts, “If Klaus was in the past for ten months, would he celebrate his birthday ten months earlier than us?”

He blinks again. An odd question for his soon-to-be murderer to ask. Have the ashes stopped falling?

“It depends-“ he chokes as dust enters his lungs, but he’s breathed in a lot of dust before and something about this dust doesn’t feel the same, “It depends on if you’re counting the anniversary of his birth or his physical age.” He thinks the walls have stopped falling. The floor isn’t shaking anymore.

“So, the answer would be different depending on which one you’re counting?”

“Yes.” He can’t see Klaus or Ben anymore. Luther’s gone, too. “If you’re talking about physical age, he would celebrate his birthday ten months earlier.”

“But not if you’re simply celebrating the anniversary?”

Diego and Allison are gone now, too, and he finally understands what is going on. He still doesn’t really feel like standing up, or walking, or doing anything but lay on the floor for the next five hours. But he’s feeling a bit better.

“Then, he wouldn’t celebrate his birthday earlier, no. He’d just be celebrating the day and not how old he actually is.”

Vanya hums and she is not an adult anymore. She is Vanya in her thirteen year old body, the Vanya that he knows and loves. She pulls him up so that he is sitting rather than laying and kisses his forehead. If it was any other situation, he’d be offended.

“Come on,” she whispers, “It’s time for bed, okay?”

He finds that trying to fit on a bed that Vanya, Klaus, and Ben are also sleeping on is extremely difficult.

 

 

 

For Ben, it’s feeling.

When he was dead, he missed being able to feel. He missed flavors, too, and he missed being able to talk and be heard. But he went fifteen years without any of those things, and now that he has them back, it’s overwhelming.

He can’t remember what it was like when he first died and he had to adjust to losing all those things. He imagines it felt similar. Except this time instead of suddenly losing his senses, they were pushed back on him. Not that he isn’t grateful. It’s just a lot to take in.

The first day they are back in the Academy things are tense, seeing as how they still haven’t explained to Dad what’s going on. He sits down for breakfast with Vanya next to him and Klaus next to her. There’s a blue glow in the corner, and Ben thinks he knows who that blue glow will be in the next few hours.

Ben takes a bite of his cereal. He vaguely remembers always hating the cereal as a child, thinking it was bland and gross. But right now? It’s the best god damn thing he’s ever tasted. He holds it in his mouth for a moment before he swallows, savoring the taste.

Then he scrambles out of his chair and pukes.

“Ben!” Klaus exclaims, and there is a gentle hand on his upper back. Dad yells for an explanation, and Ben realizes maybe they shouldn’t have left out the fact that he died (will die?) when they told Dad what was going on. 

 

Then Dad has them spar in the courtyard. (Except Vanya, because she hasn’t grown used to her powers yet.) Allison lands a punch on Ben’s side. Ben starts crying.

Not because the punch is hard. It‘s a hit he can he easily take. No, he starts crying because he felt it. It didn’t go straight through his body. It landed on him, and he _felt_ it.

Once he finally convinces her he’s fine, he continues sparring with Allison. Every punch that lands on him feels amazing.

 

Laying down in bed that night is what causes it.

Ben and Klaus don’t want to leave each others’ sides. Vanya doesn’t want to be alone, and Klaus and Ben are the only people she fully trusts at the moment. So they end up all in the same bed.

The sheets are so soft on Ben’s skin, and he feels like he is sinking into the bed. (Although he recalls once thinking sleeping on the beds in the Academy was like sleeping on a rock, back when he was a child.) Klaus and Vanya are hot, _burning_ next to him.

He has only been in the bed for a few minutes before a choked gasp leaves him and he is rolling off the bed.

“What... the fuck,” Klaus groans, because he had already been asleep for an hour. Vanya snores; She’s always been a deep sleeper.

“It’s too much,” Ben whines. He thinks Vanya is waking up now. He’s pretty sure he can hear her murmuring quietly.

“What’s too much?” Klaus asks, sliding off the bed.

“Everything. Too much - feeling.”

“What do you need?”

“I _need_ less things touching me,” Ben says. He rolls over and meets Klaus’s eyes. Vanya’s head is peeking over the edge of the bed.

“This is gonna sound weird,” Vanya says, and if Ben thinks it’s hard to hear her normally it’s near impossible now,”But why don’t you take your clothes off?”

“That’s actually an amazing idea.”

Ben shimmies his shirt off and then his socks and pants (leaving his underwear on, he doesn’t want to be too weird,) and instantly he feels a thousand times better. He lays there on the floor, and now the texture of the carpet is the only thing he has to worry about. He can just focus on that, and there isn’t anything else shouting over it.

“I think I wanna sleep here.”

“Aren’t you gonna get cold?” Klaus asks.

“I’m good.”

Vanya dangles a pillow over him. “Do you want a pillow?”

“No thanks.”

It’s hell for his neck, but it’s worth it.

 

 

 

For Vanya, it’s the emotions.

She hasn’t felt anything this _strongly_ since she was a child and started her meds. Instead of pleasant she is happy, instead of disappointed she is sad, instead of annoyed she is angry.

 _Most_ _people_ _my_ _mental_ _age_ , she thinks, _probably_ _have_ _had_ _a_ _lot_ _more_ _experience_ _with_ _learning_ _to_ _process_ _their_ _emotions_. It’s something she should have been working on her entire life. Instead, she starts at thirty. Better late than never, she supposes.

At first, she looks to Five as an example. Then she realizes he is a fifty eight year old man who spent forty years talking to nobody but a mannequin and thinks maybe he isn’t the best role model. Then she thinks of Allison, before she remembers most of Allison’s life is built on her rumors.

 _Actually_ , Vanya realizes,  _this_ _entire_ _family_ _is_ _made_ _of_ _adult_ _children_. _How_ _fitting_.

So the first time she ever gets truly angry since the apocalypse, when Klaus comes home after the mausoleum, she is glad Five takes care of it. But then Luther tries to rationalize Dad’s actions _again_ , like he still hasn’t realized how much of a stubborn asshole he is.

They are in the courtyard, and they are alone.

It’s the first time she’s been alone with Luther.

     She’s still pissed at him for last time.

“I swear to god, Luther,” Vanya says, “shut up.”

“What?”

“I said shut up!” She yells, and suddenly the tree behind them cracks. They are lucky there isn’t anything around for it to hit.

Luther stares at her, eyes wide. “Vanya-“

Vanya runs inside as fast as she can. She rushes up the stairs, nearly knocking Mom over, and into the bathroom. It’s the only room with a lock on it.

She is slitting Allison’s throat with her bow. Allison is falling to the floor, dead, and Leonard is grabbing Vanya. Vanya is screaming at Leonard and then he is impaled a dozen times by a dozen knives and then he is dead, too. The Academy is falling to the ground as she walks through it, and then she is destroying the god damn moon and she feels like nothing can stop her. She is right, because then she destroys the world, too.

A tree falls on Luther; A lightbulb bursts right next to Diego; The fire in the fireplace expands and engulfs Five; The window Klaus is looking through bursts; The building next to Ben crumbles; The oven explodes with Mom in the kitchen.

     She kills her family.

“VANYA!” Klaus pounds on the door, “Vanya, sweetheart, you gotta calm down!”

Is the floor shaking, or is that just her?

“Allison,” someone, probably Five says. “Allison, you have to.”

There’s no response. (There’s no response because Vanya slit her throat and she can’t talk anymore.)

Vanya screams.

There’s muttering that sounds like cussing. The faucet bursts, and it is drenching Vanya in water but she finds she doesn’t really care.

“Hello, Ms. Vanya.”

Vanya makes a wheezing noise because she doesn’t really know where her ability to breathe wandered off to, and looks up. It’s Dave. He crosses the bathroom to the door and as soon as he opens it all her siblings are in the room.

A tree falls on Luther. A lightbulb bursts right next to Diego. Vanya slits Allison’s throat. The fire in the fireplace expands and engulfs Five. The window Klaus is looking through bursts. The building next to Ben crumbles-

“Vanya, I heard a rumor you were calm.”

Vanya gasps and then her siblings are in front of her, alive, and the floor isn’t shaking. Five pulls her close and kisses her forehead. 

     He snorts and says, “We really do need to train your powers more, Vanya.”

“Shut up,” she grumbles, “I’m so - I’m really sorry, everyone. But, Luther?”

“Yes?”

“Stop pretending Dad isn’t a piece of shit.”

Klaus whistles. “That’s my girl!”

(She really loves her family.)

**Author's Note:**

> hope u enjoyed!
> 
> pls lmk what u think about how i included dave, and also i’m thinking of a part three that kinda dives into how dave and Klaus adjust to. whatever is happening right now
> 
> tumblr: luciimarii


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